The mission of the festival, to raise funds for Albany arts organizations, suddenly has become even more important: The city of Albany has completely eliminated all of the arts funding from its 2011 budget, meaning dozens of organizations will not receive a total of about $350,000 in city arts grants next year.

The festival schedule:

Thursday, Jan. 6: Wine dinners at 10 restaurants, with food by festival chefs and wine pairings from participating vineyards and suppliers. Check out the menus. Prices will be decided once wine pairings are finalized; they will vary by restaurant.

The 10 finalists for “rising star” status will be announced Wednesday (10/6); nominations were made by Table Hopping readers. Online voting to determine the six rising-star chefs who will be featured at the festival will begin Oct. 15.

Steve Barnes

3 Responses

Thank you THAT Bob. I totally agree. If people want to fund arts through charity events like this that’s great, but I don’t want a nickel of my tax dollars going towards it. If art can’t stand on its own and create its own audience and funding too bad.